Saturday, August 31, 2013

(Xiamen, China)- The Cal State Long Beach Sailing Team torpedoed the
competition in Xiamen, China last month as they swept their way to
victory at the first Pan-Pacific University Sailing Championship. Over
20 teams from China, Taiwan and Singapore took to the waters in their
J/80 the weekend of July 15-17 hoping to take home the gold.

“We came out swinging,” team captain Shane Young said of the team’s
mindset going into the event. “We came out expecting them all to be
top-notch sailors and we had high expectations. We went into the regatta
not expecting to win because I think when you do that you kind of shoot
yourself in the foot.”

Fortunately,
the team made the most of the school’s first international regatta by
winning all seven races hosted in Wuyuan Bay. Although the team had
never sailed those waters, Young attributed their preparedness to the
water conditions being nearly identical to the waters of Marina Del Ray
where they had practiced leading up to the trip to China.

The team tried to remain grounded as they continued to win races
throughout the weekend, but they were finally able to express their
happiness after winning the seventh and final race, which left no
question as to who was taking home the gold medal.

“When we crossed the finish line and won I just slapped the deck and
screamed,” Young said. “It was great. I got the chills. It was just
sweet.”

The victory overseas, however, almost didn’t happen.

Pressed
for time and funds, Young admitted that it came down to the final week
to raise the $12,000 it was going to cost to send the five sailors to
China. Donations from the Long Beach Yacht Club, as well as private
donors and team parents, combined with the team’s t-shirt sales
successfully financed the trip. At a banquet held last Thursday night at
the Long Beach Yacht Club to honor the victory, the team dedicated
their trophies to the donors to show their appreciation.

“That was one of the bigger accomplishments outside of sailing for our
team,” Young said of the fundraising effort. Young goes on to explain
that the team regularly struggles just to raise gas money for trips to
San Francisco, where they stay at the homes of area Yacht Club members
to save money.

Three years ago, the Cal State Long Beach sailing team was a distant
memory. The team had history, being ranked as one of best in the nation
during a portion of the 1980s, but it had become dormant before Young
and a few like-minded students decided to resurrect it. Laura Newton, a
former member of the team and co-resuscitator of the team, recalled the
growing pains.

First, there was the red tape of starting up a club sport. Then came the
recruitment process, home-making of uniforms and driving to
competitions with their dinghies strapped to the top of a sedan. Meeting
three times a week from 1-4 PM when the team would perfect their craft
required a lot of night classes and shuffling of schedules. And when
their DIY team finally got on the water, they had to gain the acceptance
of much more established teams from around the area. Read more here at Long Beach Post.com about their growing pains and sailing experiences...

(San Diego, CA)- Attention all J/Sailors, you're invited to J/Fest 2013,
September 27 - 29 at San Diego Yacht Club! J/Fest boasts a long
history of being one of the most fun and well attended regattas in
SoCal, exclusively for J/Boats! The regatta is open to one design
classes as well as a J/Boat PH fleet!

There
are two Racing Venues for the fleets. One is inside San Diego Bay
racing on some nice flat water-- for the J/22, J/24, J/70. J80
one-design fleets. On the outside sailing in the wide-open ocean off
beautiful Point Loma are the J/105, J/109 and J/120 one-design fleets
along with the J/PHRF fleets.

The schedule for the event includes the following:
Friday - "Just for Fun" race on the San Diego Bay, 4:00 start. Casual social event at SDYC
Saturday - 3 races, Awesome J/Fest Party Saturday evening at SDYC
Sunday - 2 races, prize giving party at SDYC

Get your crew together and join us on the water for two days of
competitive and fun buoy racing plus on shore for the social
festivities. Saturday evening the traditional J/Fest Party will be held
with tons of awesome swag and giveaways from our sponsors, the prize
giving will be held after racing on Sunday afternoon! With an
anticipated attendance of over 60 boats, this is the one regatta you do
not want to miss this year! For any questions, please contact Joanne
O'Dea at email- joanne@jk3yachts.com or on phone # 619-347-9407. For more J/Fest SAN DIEGO registration and sailing information

(Annapolis, MD)- Annapolis Race Week is one of the premier sailing
regattas in the Mid-Atlantic Region. It's sailed annually over the Labor
Day Weekend (this year from August 31st to September 2nd) off
Annapolis. CBYRA is happy to announce that its tent party and regatta
headquarters will be again held at Annapolis' City Dock. Utilizing the
Susan Campbell Park as the shore-side venue has heightened visibility
and attendance and by opening it up to the public, created a citywide
festival type event oriented towards sailing!

There are more than fifty-seven J/Teams sailing out of eighty-three
boats registered so far with J's representing the dominant brand at the
regatta with over 70% of the fleet!

The
inaugural J/70 one-design class has thirty-one teams competing, by far
the largest class in the regatta, where many leading contenders are
using the event as a tune-up for the upcoming J/70 North Americans in
Annapolis in the end of September. Amongst the notable teams (based on
recent performances) are Joel Ronning's CATAPULT, Blake Kimbrough's
NOSTALGIA, Bennet Greenwald's PERSEVERANCE, Martin Kullman's TOUCH 2
PLAY and Brian Keane's SAVASANA. Two others to watch out for are Henry
Filter on WILD CHILD and Peter McChesney on USA 209-- both college
sailing All-Americans with enormous amounts of one-design experience
under their belts. Three women skippers are also participating and have
been demonstrating they are quite competitive at both a regional and
national level, including Jenn Wulff on JOINT CUSTODY, Kathy Parks on
SUNDOG and Catharine Evans on MOJITO.

Friday, August 30, 2013

(La Rochelle, France)- J/120 RHAPSODY V won the Rolex Fastnet Race IRC Class 3 and was third overall in IRC of nearly 200 boats! Their program was launched two years ago by Jean-Jacques Godet (of the famous French cognac house of the same name) with a largely La Rochelle-based crew.

"It was a family and friends project," explains Tony Pike, manager of
North Sails. "Jean-Jacques Godet bought the boat and then he came to see
me to buy sails. I helped organize the crew and tried to make good
progress."

In particular, they made use of professional sailors in "key positions"
as part of the whole crew. For the Fastnet Race, Tony convinced Yannick
Bestaven (hoping defend his Class 40 title in the next Transat Jacques
Vabre) to join the adventure.

The La Rochelle team has had a very successful summer racing offshore.
In Cowes Race Week they finished third in class on the Solent (the start
for the Fastnet Race). And, in May they won the Armen Race. So, the
third overall finish in Plymouth illustrates the remarkable progression
of RHAPSODY V over the past two years.

It has been a great, heart-warming success for Jean-Jacques Godet, who
had aboard his two sons (Maxime and Jean-Edouard). Other Rochelais
sailors that were present included Tony Pike, Yannick Bestaven, Florian
Floglietti, Augustin Frédéric Ruffle and Leclere.

M. Godet was able to attract experienced professional sailors of Yannick
Bestaven's calibre because, beyond just the racing, the enormous
numbers of IRC sailors are also potential customers for Bestaven's
company-- WATT & SEA-- renown for making high quality, reliable
hydro-generators for sailing yachts and offshore racing and cruising
boats of all sizes.

Said Tony Pike of their experience, "What we want is that the owner has
great fun both on the water and on land. We're here to help tactically,
provide information on weather options, help on navigation, and
fine-tune sail trim." Clearly they achieved their goals while
maintaining crew cohesion and a family-like atmosphere of cooperation!

Judy Jellinek's J/160 Queen of the Fleet
(Camden, Maine)- There is no more desirable sailing venue than scenic
Penobscot Bay in August, and this year’s Rendezvous sailed from August
15th to 18th was near perfect with temperatures in the mid 70s, blue
skies every day and sailing breezes from 5 to 15 knots every day.

Forty-two
boats participated (40% were J’s) and they covered the J/Boat spectrum
with two J/160s, two J/46s, three J/42s, a J/40 and a J/34C from the
cruising ranks as well as a J/122, J/120, J/109, two J/100s and a J/29
and a J/80. No surprise that J’s took 60% of the podium positions.

In PHRF 1 J’s took three of the top four spots with Don Logan’s J/105
KEEMAH coming second followed by two J/100s, Tom Gill's SEA SMOKE in 3rd
and Frank Simon's SMITTEN in fourth.

Cruising
Canvas came down to a nail biter between Judy Jellinek’s gorgeous J/160
SEPTEMBER MORNING, the venerable Palmer Johnson 53 Anjaca, with deep
local knowledge aboard, and Windwalker, a stunning Lyman Morse 60. Had
there been a concours d elegance it would have been a dead heat! On
the final day, SEPTEMBER MORNING was able to save her overall victory
with a one point margin over Anjacaa and Windwalker. A great effort by
Judy in her third ever regatta!

Double-Handed was the largest class with sixteen entrants and it turned
into a battle royal between a very well sailed Sydney 38 sailed by Tom
Hall and Tom Babbitt's BRAVO, a shoal draft J42 in full cruise mode,
cockpit cushions, dodger and grill deployed. BRAVO was able to win the
first day, with Buzz second, but Buzz dominated on Saturday with BRAVO
second, so Sunday was the rubber match and in the stronger breeze, Buzz
eeked out a 20 second victory over BRAVO. The final standings were
Buzz in first, BRAVO second and Bermuda One-Two overall champion, Scott
Miller’s J/122 RESOLUTE, in third. Fifth was James Bennett's J/34c
ASTAEA. Next year’s Rendezvous will be August 14 – 17, 2014. Don’t
miss it!
For more Penobscot Bay Rendezvous sailing information

Thursday, August 29, 2013

(Trieste, Italy)- Piero Santi's J/122 AOI ME ("blue eyes" in Japanese)
won its class in the Mittel Europa IRC Criterium in Trieste Italy in the
end of July. Mr Santi had a tremendous perspective to offer to all
J/Owners about his experience sailing his beloved J/122 in this epic
race. Said Piero:

"We won our class with a second place in the overall ranking. The boat
is powered by the fantastic Doyle sails designed in USA by Mark Ploch
and perfectly made by Doyle Italy. But our results are not the main
reason why I'm sending you this message.

Racing
against good boats and sailed by really high level crews, I really
appreciated, another time, the 'sweet' pleasure of quality.

Sailing is a passion first of all, so it's really fantastic to know that
someone is able to design and produce a boat and sails of such a
quality. We were always fast, upwind and downwind and everything on
board worked well, every hardware is in the right place and with the
right dimension.

J/120 BRILLIANCE Does it Again!
(Chester, Nova Scotia)- Competitors from across Canada and the Eastern
Seaboard descended upon the picturesque fishing village of Chester, Nova
Scotia for Canada’s largest keelboat regatta – Chester Race Week,
sailed from August 14th to 17th.

Under variable conditions that included light air, fog and medium air
with brilliant sunshine along with the 183' Fidelis anchored in the
inner harbour in Chester, 133 yachts competed in this years running of
Chester Race Week.

Richard
Calder's J/120 BRILLIANCE sailing from Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron
completed her defense of the Alpha Distance 1 class championship at
this years Chester Race Week posting a solid 1-1-1-4 scoreline in the 11
boat fleet. Sailing to a close second was Fred Smither's J/120 ADIOS
skippered by Dwayne Smithers and in third was Chester YC's Dave Connolly
onboard the J/111 STAMPEDER.

The
J/29 one-design class winner was Andrew Child's SILVER WOMAN counting
an astounding eight 1sts in nine races to count to dominate their class
with a 14 pt win! Second was a tough battle for two boats- J-ZEUS II9
and COLMONELL. In the end, it was John Heseltine's J-ZEUS II9 with 24
pts taking the silver followed by the Christie Brothers's COLMONELL just
one point back in third place.

The
J/24 one-design class had a good turn-out, with eight boats sailing in a
very competitive series. Ultimately, RNSYS's Peter Wickwire onboard
SUNNYVALE took the J/24 crown, but it was not an easy one to attain.
Nipping at their heels all regatta long was Ted Murphy's JUVENILE
DELINQUENT from RNSYS, taking second place just 3 pts back. Sailing
brilliantly at times, but tossing a few discard races into the mix, was
Greg Blunden's ADRENALINE RUSH-- too much Red Bull perhaps for these
boys? Their roller-coaster scoreline still enabled them to hang in for
third overall.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

(Plymouth, England)- J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER sailed by John van de Starre and Robin Verhoef
sailed well again in this year's Fastnet Race sailing in the IRC
Double-handed class. Here's a video sequence by videographer Robin
Knight of them flying along under main, code zero and jib on starboard
tack headed to Fastnet Rock-- with no one on the helm!! They're using,
of course, a powerful auto-pilot on the steering quadrant to enable one
person on deck to trim sails and adjust the autopilot magnetic course.
Get a feeling for their experience by viewing this short YouTube sailing video.

Howth YC Under 25 team lift Irish National title
(Howth, Ireland)- Howth Yacht Club hosted the recent J/24 Irish
Championships, an event which was both a warm-up for Irish competitors
and a fine tune for the race management team, in advance of the imminent
BMW J/24 World Championship. With the top three determined by just one
point, it's indicative of how close the class has become competitively
amongst its top practitioners!

Saturday morning saw the fleet held ashore for a few hours by PRO David
Lovegrove due to high winds. Nobody wanted to risk serious damage a week
out from the main event. The later start still allowed the 20 entrants
from Ireland, Great Britain and USA to enjoy four races held in a
variety of conditions. Sun, rain, squalls, flat calms, big shifts and a
changing tide all created a very unusual mix for Howth. As one race
official noted, "If you don't like the weather, hang on for five
minutes!"

In
spite of the weather challenges, GBR visitors IL RICCIO (Italian for
"The Hedgehog") sailed by Ian Southworth dominated the first day and
headed for the bar with a 1-2-1-1 score. Just behind them was fellow
Brit Bob Turner on SERCO with a 5-1-3-3 and Ireland's Flor O'Driscoll
sailing HARD ON PORT into third with a 3-5-5-10. The top Americans all
had great scores, save for bad drop races, like Keith Whittemore's FURIO
from Seattle, Washington and Tony Parker's BANGOR PACKET from
Georgetown, DC. Top of the Irish boats at that stage was Howth's Mossy
Shanahan who bagged a tasty 2-10-4-7. The dividends were paid to those
who played relatively conservatively and kept their noses clean.

Lighter
and less variable conditions treated the fleet to incredibly tight
racing on Sunday with another four races banged off in quick time. By
the end of Race 6, IL RICCIO had sewn up the regatta, pocketing a
further two wins, not needing to race in the last two. A clinical
display of extraordinary seamanship and sailing! The fleet did its best
to push the 3PM deadline for a last start by forcing a general recall in
the penultimate race. Taking second for the regatta was Seattle's Keith
Whittemore on FURIO, posting a 2-2-1.5-1- in the last four races to
nearly pull off the ultimate upset sailing the last day, losing by just a
0.5 pts. Third was the UK's Bob Turner on SERCO just another 0.5 pts
back!! Rounding out the closely fought top five were Tony Parker's
BANGOR PACKET crew in fourth and the Brit's JIGGY 2 led by Paul Williams
in fifth.

Irish National title winner was the HYC Under 25 crew sailing EURO CAR
PARKS KILCULLEN followed by Flor O'Driscoll's team HARD ON PORT in
second and taking third Irish Nats on the podium was the Darrer/ Murphy
team on the old STOUCHE.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

(Chicago, IL)- The newly International J/111 One-design class held its
inaugural North American Championship from August 14th to 18th, 2013 at
Chicago Yacht Club's Belmont Station. It was an exciting show for the
fourteen boats sailing from across America, with teams participating
from the Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes and East Coast. An unexpected
treat for the sailors was the fact the wildly popular Chicago Air &
Water Show was being held concurrently, with over one million people
watching along Chicago's spectacular waterfront with simply epic aerial,
smoke-trailed acrobatic maneuvers performed by World War I bi-planes/
tri-planes, World War II vintage fighter planes and modern fighter jets
just blowing away the bystanders with twisting, diving, spiraling,
loop-to-looping balletic displays of breathtaking aerial maneuvers.

After four exciting days of sailing in very challenging wind conditions
that rarely topped 7.5 kts of wind, the legends of Harbor Springs, Rich
Lehmann's crackerjack team on their mighty WINDCZAR, sailed to the top
of the class-- crowned as first ever J/111 North American Champions.

It
was truly a roller-coaster ride for many of the top five teams in the
event that saw fairly dramatic swings on the leaderboard each day until
the last day of the regatta. Of the four days sailed, the most wind was
seen by fleet on the first three legs of the first race on Thursday--
that's when it broke the supersonic 10 kts barrier, albeit briefly.
Thereafter, the next 3.5 days of racing were spent in the easterly
quadrant with breezes blowing onshore from ENE to ESE in varying degrees
of intensity from 5 to 7.5 kts. For those who had good light air speed
upwind, in particular, it was a heaven sent gift no one could've ever
imagined.

From day one, it was clear the regatta was going to be between two
well-sailed crews, Len Siegal's LUCKY DUBIE from the host Chicago YC
(and regatta co-chair) and Rich Lehmann's WINDCZAR from Harbor Springs,
Michigan. Leading from the outset, the LUCKY DUBIE gang was part of the
trio of boats that prophetically split on the first downwind run in the
first race from the entire fleet to be one of the leaders of the regatta
from there on end (the others were Paul Stahlberg's MENTAL and
Lehmann's WINDCZAR!). After the first day, the LUCKY DUBIE gang was
leading with WINDCZAR in second and the Verve Cup J/111 class winner,
Henry Brauer's FLEETWING, was hanging in for a solid third place
position.

Day
two was a dramatic reversal of fortunes for many. Moving into first
place by virtue of an outstanding day on the water was WINDCZAR with a
daily 2-1-5 record to put them 8 pts clear in first place with 12 pts
total. Having a less "smokin hot" day was Len Siegal's LUCKY DUBIE.
While sailing a brilliant last race of the day, the first two races were
simply forgettable. After posting a 9-7-1, the Lucky Dubsters dropped
into second with 20 pts total. Third was the famous red boat MENTAL
piloted by Paul Stahlberg and gang from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their
very consistent 5-2-6 pulled them into third overall with 28 pts.

The
third day of the regatta produced the surprise performance so far.
William Smith's WOOTON helmed by Jim Alvert smoked the fleet in the
first two races with two firsts by a country mile! However, the third
race proved to be the roller-coaster ride so far for the regatta. For
many, the "wheels fell off the shopping trolley". In other words, like
the proverbial "Icarus" flying too close to the sun, their wings got
burnt off and came crashing down to the reality of Earth. Remarkably,
the regatta leader WINDCZAR fell into that category. After a brilliant
second day, the "wind wizards" posted a 6-8-8 for the day to drop into a
tie for second place one point off the lead! The LUCKIE DUBIE gang
sailed a solid day to take a 4-7-2 for the day to become, again, the
regatta leaders by one point. Finishing in triumphant fashion after
their first two races was Stahlberg's MENTAL, improving every race to
post a 5-3-1 score to emphatically put their mark on their bid for top
honors overall. Tied with them was Marty Roesch's VELOCITY team from
Annapolis, Maryland in the top five.

The
last day promised to be another cliff-hanger for the fleet with a light
ESE breeze that was fed by an onshore sea-breeze effect midday. The
fact the lead had changed hands so dramatically in the last three days
and that the top five were all within ten points of one another meant
the championship was wide open for the team that could rise to the
occasion.

With racing scheduled to start at 1030 hrs, the Chicago YC PRO and crew
did a magnificent job to get the ball rolling and after two general
recalls the fleet took off into an ESE breeze at 105 degrees blowing 5-7
kts. With yet another "classic southeast sea-breeze" building the big
question would be which way the "locals" would go and how would the
"foreigners" figure it all out? With the breeze fluctuating from 90 to
125 degrees, it was anyone's guess what would happen. As it turns out,
just about any strategy worked so long as you stayed on the lifted tack
AND had good light air speed. For the top five boats, it was going to
pose a difficult challenge.

Sailing
"lights out" in the first race of the day was WINDCZAR, taking the lead
in the regatta with a first place in race nine while Len Siegal's LUCKY
DUBIE had to score their worst race in the series, a tenth. Paul
Stahlberg's crew on MENTAL sailed a great race, working their way
through the fleet to register a fourth and put themselves in a position
to have a shot at the overall title.

With
the stage set for the last race, it was anyone's guess what the outcome
would be for the championship. In the end, Lehmann's team on WINDCZAR
stayed out of trouble, sailed a smart and conservative race to finish
third and were crowned the first overall J/111 North American
Champions! While their disastrous ninth race hurt their chances at the
overall title, Len Siegal's crew on LUCKY DUBIE concluded their regatta
with an emphatic first place in race ten to take the second spot
overall. Sailing their hearts out all week were Paul Stahlberg's MENTAL
crew taking third overall. Fourth in the regatta was Marty Roesch's
VELOCITY crew from Annapolis, Maryland and fifth was Bill Smith's WOOTON
crew from Bay Harbor, Michigan.

The J/111 crews all had a wonderful time. Thanks to the sponsors SLAM
Gear, Richie Stearns from Stearns Boating, Skyway Yachtworks and friends
of Chicago Yacht Club. Furthermore, the Chicago YC Race Committee and
PRO did an admirable job of producing great racing in what many would
consider to be very challenging wind conditions.

During the regatta, the social media/ photography team of Alan and
Meredith Block provided excellent coverage for the event. For more
beautiful photography, please see Meredith's photo albums on the J/Boats Facebook page.

Furthermore, what many have discovered is that J/111 sailing is very attractive to women
for a number of reasons (the boat is easy to sail, women can steer,
trim jib, trim chute, do pit, do bow; women love the head; plus you can
sit inside to stay cool; plus it has a very comfortable cockpit). Here
are a few cameo interviews with some of these "Ladies of the J/111 Fleet":